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Tennis serve technique, without the myths.

Three of the serve problems that actually cost club players matches, taken from the serve and return section of The Ultimate Tennis Handbook. Symptom, root cause, the fix, a drill and a marker so you know it worked. Nothing to sign up for - read it, take it to court.

The economy of the service game

The serve is the only shot in tennis nobody interferes with. You choose the height, the pace, the spin and the target, and no one is allowed to affect any of it. It is also, by a distance, the shot club players spend the least time practising.

Some numbers to frame what follows. Across elite men's singles, the server wins around 65% of all points. Split that by serve and the picture sharpens: when the first serve goes in, the server wins roughly 73% of the time. Reduced to a second serve, that falls to about 57%. A study of nearly 4,700 Grand Slam points from the 2021 season put first-serve effectiveness at 69% on clay and 75% on both grass and hard court, with second-serve effectiveness near 55% regardless of surface.

The 16-point gap between first and second serve is the entire economy of the service game.

Then the number that catches most players out. Across the ATP, the median first serve percentage for the winner of a match is around 63%. For the loser it's about 61%. A two-point difference. Craig O'Shannessy's college data goes further: players landing around 70% of first serves hardly win anything, because a first serve you make seven times in ten isn't behaving like a first serve at all. It's a second serve wearing a disguise.

So the target isn't as high as you think. Somewhere in the low-to-mid sixties, with a serve that actually does something when it lands.

1. Your first serve percentage is fine and you still get broken

Symptom

You get 65% of first serves in. You're pleased about that. You also can't hold serve against anyone decent, and you spend most of your service games playing defence from the second shot onwards.

Root cause

Your first serve is landing without doing anything. Placement is what separates a serve that earns from a serve that merely starts the point. Analysis of Grand Slam serve locations found that roughly 68% of successful first serves landed close to the sidelines of the service box - out wide or down the T. Second serves reached those same corners only around 30% of the time, because the server is protecting against a double fault.

Now think about what you actually do. Most club players hit a first serve at moderate pace into the middle third of the box, roughly where the returner is standing. You've handed them a ball they can step into with no movement required, and you're the one under pressure in your own service game. The other half of the problem is that you probably have no plan for the shot after the serve.

The fix

  1. Serve to a corner, always. Out wide or down the T. Pick before you toss. A slightly slower serve into a corner beats a faster one down the middle every time, because it moves the returner and opens the court.
  2. Add the body serve as your third option. Straight at the returner's hip on the dominant side. The most underused serve in club tennis and brutally effective - the returner has to move out of the way to make space, and almost nobody does it cleanly under pressure.
  3. Know your plus-one before you serve. Wide serve to the deuce court, then forehand into the space you've just opened. That's the highest-percentage aggressive pattern in the sport. Decide it before the toss, not after the return.
  4. Stop chasing percentage. If you're above 70%, you have room to serve harder or closer to the lines. Trade a few percentage points for a serve that actually pressures someone.

Drill

Corners only. Forty serves, cones or ball cans in the wide and T corners of both boxes. Count how many land in the outer third. Anything in the middle third scores zero, even if it's in. Most players score under 40% first time and are genuinely startled.

Serve plus one. Twenty wide serves to the deuce court, each followed by a forehand into the open court. Then twenty down the T with the plus-one to the same target. Score the pair, not the serve.

Marker

Track first serve percentage and points won on first serve together. Percentage alone tells you nothing. If your percentage is high and your points-won number is under 65%, you're serving too safe.

2. You double fault under pressure

Symptom

Fine for most of the match. Then at 30-30, or serving for the set, the second serve either drops into the net or sails long. Sometimes both, back to back.

Root cause

The mechanism is psychological before it's technical - what's happening in your arm is a symptom of what's happening in your attention. Technically there are usually two culprits, and they're opposites.

Decelerating. You slow the racket head down to be safe. A slow swing produces a slow ball with no spin, which has no way of dipping into the box, so it flies long. Then you aim lower to fix it, and it goes into the net.

A changed toss. Under tension the toss creeps lower and further forward. Now you're hitting a flatter ball with less clearance and no margin. Watch anyone double fault at 30-40 and look at the toss rather than the swing.

The fix

  1. Swing faster, not slower. Counterintuitive, and it's the whole fix. A second serve needs racket head speed to generate the topspin that brings it down into the box. Accelerating up and across the back of the ball is what creates margin. Decelerating removes it.
  2. Aim higher over the net. Roughly a metre above the net, not skimming it. The spin brings it down. Most double faults into the net come from players aiming at the tape.
  3. Fix the toss height with a checkpoint. Toss so the ball peaks about a foot above your full extension, same height every time, including at 5-4. If you can't do that under pressure, catch the toss and start again - it's allowed, and it costs nothing.
  4. Pick one target and commit. Kick serve to the backhand is the default for most players. Choose it before you bounce the ball, and hit it. Deciding mid-toss is how double faults happen.

Drill

Second serves only. Fifty consecutive second serves into the ad court, targeting the backhand corner, then fifty to the deuce court. Nobody does this and everybody needs it.

Pressure second serves. Ten second serves. Every miss means five press-ups or a court sprint. You want the physical consequence attached, so the arm learns what to do while the stakes are non-zero.

Marker

Count double faults per set. Under two is fine. Above four means this is costing you matches. Note when they happen too - if they cluster at 30-30 and 30-40, the problem is attention rather than technique.

3. Your second serve is a free point for your opponent

Symptom

You don't double fault much, and you're proud of that. But the moment you miss a first serve, your opponent steps in and takes the point off you.

Root cause

You've solved the wrong problem. You've optimised for not double faulting, and the cost is a second serve that doesn't threaten anyone. The professional benchmark is that a second serve should still win you around 55% of points. The three markers of a weak second serve, in order of how much damage they do: no spin (a flat, slow ball that sits up at a comfortable height), no depth (landing near the service line, so the returner steps in and takes it early), and no variety of target.

The fix

  1. Build a real kick or slice serve. A technical project measured in months, not a tip - brushing up the back of the ball rather than hitting through it.
  2. Serve deep, at the backhand, as the default. Depth on a second serve is worth more than pace.
  3. Occasionally hit your first serve second. Once or twice a set, hit a proper serve on the second ball. You'll double fault sometimes. The point is to stop your opponent camping on the second serve for the rest of the match.
  4. Watch where they're standing. If they've moved inside the baseline on your second serve, that's information. Serve at their body - there's nowhere to go, and standing close makes it worse for them.

Drill

Second serve targets. A cone in the backhand corner of the box, another a metre inside the service line to mark depth. Thirty serves, scoring only those that clear the net by a metre and land past the depth cone.

Return pressure. Have a partner stand inside the baseline and attack every second serve, then play the point out. You'll find out very quickly which second serve holds up.

Marker

Second serve points won. Under 40% and it's a liability. Around 50% is a good club target. Track it for ten matches, not one.

A week of serve practice

If you only have two sessions before your next match: one session of Corners only plus Serve plus one, and one session of fifty second serves per side finishing with Pressure second serves. Then in the match, write down two numbers only - first serve percentage and points won on first serve. Those two numbers tell you whether any of this landed.